On The Dark Matter Crisis, we have already presented numerous problems that appear within the LCDM model of cosmology. Some of these have been given names, like the “Missing Satellites Problem”, where LCDM predicts more dark matter subhaloes around the Milky Way than there are observed satellite galaxies, which are expected to trace them. Or the “Missing Baryons Problem”: from cosmological predictions we expect a certain density in the baryonic, luminous and thus in principle observable matter. But when you add up all the visible matter you observed, you only get 10-40 per cent of what you expect. The larger fraction is missing.

Even the ongoing non-detection of the DM particle in direct-detection experiments might be seen by some as another of these problems. So, there are several cases in which the model predicts something which then is not observed, thus leading to the 'missing' of that particular entity or observation thereof.

This week, two additional studies report that even more seems to be missing (when your expectations are based on what LCDM predicts, that is). They both point at a serious lack in the amount of expected dark matter on two very different size-scales: the local universe and our ...